A Short History of the Bungalow

America had a long love affair with the Bungalow-for thirty years a torrid one-and the old flame has been rekindled. This is the story of how an exotic Angloâ-Indian word came to mean a new American house style. Bungalows came from India, so say popular accounts, but it wasn't that simple. The word (or variations of it) existed for hundreds of years before any bungalows showed up here. "Bunguloues," temporary and quickly erected shelters, were referred to by an Englishman in India in 1659; we find "bangla," "bungales," and "banggolos" before the English spelling "bungalow" superseded others by 1820.